Rasha Mubarak

Contents

Opposing "Muslim ban"

Representatives from CAIR - Florida announced late January 2017, that they were filing a federal lawsuit against President Donald Trump, in response to his executive orders barring immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the country over the weekend.

The lawsuit is filed from 20 plaintiffs, including CAIR - Florida Chief Executive Director Hassan Shibly and other activists, lawyers and representatives from civil rights organizations, and it claims Trump’s orders were unconstitutional against both the First and Fifth amendments.

In Orlando, Rasha Mubarak with CAIR called the orders “discriminatory, anti-immigrant, anti-refugee and anti-Muslim,” and decried them for trying to “criminalize groups of people in an attempt to galvanize the American people.

Speakers recounted both personal stories and tales of helping people at the Orlando International Airport last weekend during the confusion immediately following the ban. Ida Eskamani, an aide to Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, said her own grandmother, who is 84 years old, has now been prohibited from entering the United States.

Alex Barrio, District Director for Sen. Darren Soto, recalled an Iranian UCF student going for a PhD who has been barred from returning due to the executive order.